Urban vulnerability: perspectives from Southern Africa

This book aims to stimulate the debate about risk reduction in urban settings and to identify key issues for further advocacy. It proposes a conceptual framework for understanding urban vulnerablity and link the concept with disaster risk.

It features an overview of some of the urban challenges facing five southern African countries (Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe), sets the context for case studies from each country, with a particular emphasis on youth, health and the environment.

The case studies examine urban-based initiatives, each operating on a relatively small scale and documenting threats to urban livelihoods ranging from insufficient food, pesticide contamination, fires, environmental hazards associated with poverty and inadequate servicing, to the social pathologies of crime.